Though Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera (D-Bronx), who sits on the subcommittee, warned that opponents had the votes to kill the project, the subcommittee instead opted to put off a vote until tomorrow or later.

"We're giving the administration as much time as possible to negotiate - the ball is in their court," said Rivera. "If they want to do the right thing, that's fine, but we're putting our foot down once and for all to say the city needs to have a living wage."

Opponents of the plan want Related to require all retail tenants to pay workers a living wage - $10-an-hour plus benefits - but Related says that would scare off both tenants and financing, forcing the developer to walk away from a site that's been vacant since 1994.

A possible compromise emerged last week to ditch the living wage requirement in favor of a fund that would top off the paychecks of minimum wage workers at the mall.

Under that proposal, revenue from renting 45,000 square feet of space, which had been designated for community use, to retailers instead - along with $400,000 a year from the city for 10 years - would go into the fund. Workers earning less than a living wage could then apply to receive a subsidy from the fund.

The fund would have about $1.75 million a year, according to Rivera, and could raise the annual income of about 450 minimum-wage workers to living-wage standards.

The city's contribution would come out of the $4 million that Related will pay the city for the landmarked Armory building.

The mayor's office has resisted the deal so far, and Rivera said that if the project crumbles, the dust will be on Mayor Bloomberg's hands.

"Time is of the essence, the clock is ticking," Rivera said. "We're giving life to it. The administration is the one who's killing it."

For his part, Bloomberg remains confident a deal will be struck to save the $300 million project.

"We've made progress, we're still talking," Bloomberg said, "and we're confident the Council will approve it in the coming days."